AUSTRALIAN VOTE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 205, 31 August 1943, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN VOTE

LABOUR’S LARGE MAJORITY (Special Australian Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) Recd. 6 p.m. Sydney, Aug. 29. Only eight of Australia’s 74 Federal electorates are now in doubt, though the final result of the Commonwealth elections will not be known until the end of the week, when the soldiers’ votes are counted and preferences allocated. Of the seats in which the outcome appears certain Labour holds 48, the Opposition J 6, and Independents 2. Both of these Independents have consistently supported Labour, and are expected to continue to do so.

Assessors reveal that the soldiers’ vote is going heavily in favour of Labour candidates, but the seats of the three challenged Opposition leaders, Messrs. Fadden and Hughes and Sir Earl Page, now appear to be secure. In Tasmania Dame Enid Lyons, widow of the late Prime Minister, is losing ground to a Labour candidate; in Sydney Mrs. Jessie Street, wife of a Supreme Court Judge, is making a fight of the election for the Wentworth seat for Labour and to become the first woman to sit in the Australian House of Representatives. She holds a primary majority of 7000 over the sitting United Australia Party member. Mr. E. J. Harrison, and needs about 25 per cent, of preferences to win.

It is being widely forecast that Mr. Curtin may visit London and Washington early in the New Year. Some American commentators, including Mr Joseph Harrison, of the Christian Science Monitor, have forecast that Mr. Curtin would leave for abroad in October, probably addressing both the United States Congress and the British Parliament. However, the Prime Minister has a heavy legislative and administrative programme ahead, including the selection and consolidation of the new Cabinet, the Budget, and the Parliamentary session. Official quarters feel that if Mr. Curtin went abroad immediately Australia’s war effort would suffer.